The 2015 Chicago Cubs are the first team since the 2011 Seattle Mariners to account for three of MLB's major end-of-season awards, per MLB Stat of the Day on Twitter.
Getting the honors are third baseman Kris Bryant (NL Rookie of the Year), starting pitcher Jake Arrieta (NL Cy Young) and manager Joe Maddon (NL Manager of the Year).
The 23-year-old Bryant was unsurprisingly a unanimous selection, after finishing the season with 25 home runs, 99 RBI, 87 runs, 13 stolen bases, a .275 batting average, a .369 on-base percentage and a .488 slugging percentage.
Maddon, who was previously selected as the AL ...

Joe Maddon entered a den full of untested Cubbies. Now, after his first season at the helm, they're all grown up.
No, Chicago didn't bust its legendary World Series drought. But the Cubs engineered a significant turnaround, snapping a string of five consecutive losing seasons with a 97-win campaign and a return to the postseason.
A sizable share of the credit goes to the club's brash, bespectacled skipper, who was rewarded with the National League Manager of the Year award Tuesday. To claim the prize, Maddon bested fellow finalists Mike Matheny of the St. Louis Cardinals and Terry Collins of the New York ...

After winning Manager of the Year two times with the Tampa Bay Rays, Joe Maddon brought his magic to the Chicago Cubs and was named 2015 National League Manager of the Year.
MLB Network provided the news:
Maddon won the award over New York Mets skipper Terry Collins and St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. Here is a look at the voting results:
With this win, Maddon joins Buck Showalter, Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker as three-time winners of the award. Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox are the only four-time winners. According to ESPN Stats & Info, he is the seventh manager ...

The shame of the 2015 National League Cy Young race is that only one pitcher can win it. Really, the award wouldn't be misplaced on any of the three finalists' mantelpieces.
If there is an odds-on favorite for the award, though, it's probably Jake Arrieta.
That's the opinion of ESPN.com's Cy Young predictor anyway, and it's believable. Arrieta accumulated plenty of numbers to please the Cy Young voters, including an MLB-best 22 wins and a 1.77 ERA that ranked second in MLB. He also was historically awesome after the All-Star break, posting a 0.75 ERA that ranks as the best ever in ...

Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs was announced as the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year on Monday as chosen by the Baseball Writers' Association of America:
ESPN Stats & Info noted Bryant is the sixth Cubs player to win the award.
The Baseball Writers' Association of America passed along the final voting tallies:
Bryant was the favorite to take home this honor since the moment he stepped into the Cubs lineup in the middle of April. The third baseman certainly didn't disappoint as he smashed 26 homers, drove in 99 runs and posted a .369 on-base percentage in 151 games.
His strong play ...

The Rookie of the Year is about performance, not potential.
Geovany Soto can finish ahead of Joey Votto, and Chris Coghlan can win in a year when Andrew McCutchen was also eligible. It happens.
But here's what is happening a lot more often in recent years: The kid who wins the Rookie of the Year jumps on the fast track to winning a Most Valuable Player Award.
Buster Posey (2010 ROY, 2012 MVP) did it, and so did Mike Trout (2012 ROY, 2014 MVP). Ryan Howard (2006) and Dustin Pedroia (2008) won the MVP the year after winning the Rookie of the Year. ...

When the Chicago Cubs hired Joe Maddon last winter, Theo Epstein called it a "unique opportunity" the team just couldn't pass up. When they signed Jon Lester six weeks later, Maddon said they'd "won the baseball lottery."
Now it's time to do it again.
The ace-heavy free-agent market presents the Cubs with another unique opportunity, another chance to win a lottery. And a chance to take everything they accomplished last winter and this past season and push it a huge step further.
All they have to do is sign Zack Greinke.
OK, so signing Greinke isn't all the Cubs would need to do this ...

For the second consecutive offseason, the Chicago Cubs could land the hottest left-hander on the market.
Nothing is official until the ink's dry, obviously, but right now, fans on the North Side can allow themselves to dream of David Price in a Cubbies uniform.
That tantalizing vision comes courtesy of Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal, who reported Friday that "an executive who knows Price says that the Cubs are his first choice."
And ESPN's Buster Olney heard from his sources that the Cubs are "heavy, heavy favorites" to secure Price's services.
Price won't come cheap. He's the top arm in a rich free-agent pitching class and ...

The 2015 Cubs season was an appetizer of sorts. It didn’t necessarily represent accomplishment but rather possibilities for a young core that will remain in Chicago for several more years.
No one walks into any restaurant because of its tasty appetizers. But certainly they can excite you about what else the chef has to offer. If anything, they increase your appetite. They leave you wanting more.
The Cubs want more, as they are hardly satisfied with a National League Championship appearance that ended in a sweep by the New York Mets. They want a World Series and appear close toward the goal ...